Proceedings of Seventeenth Kormal Institute 201 



soils; regulation of the run-off of water in the streams, thus pre- 

 venting floods ; furnishing protection for wild game ; affording 

 parks and pleasure grounds for recreation, and adding to the 

 natural beauty of the scenery. However, the principal reason 

 for reforesting, from a forestry standpoint, is the production of a 

 crop of timber. Keforesting for the production of timber is of 

 general value to the communitv, the state and the nation bv in- 

 creasing the present timber supply, and thus fostering the indus- 

 tries dependent upon wood production for their raw materials. 

 However, the person who actually does the w^ork of reforesting is 

 not so much interested in these general benefits derived by the 

 community as a whole, as in the actual revenue which he is to re- 

 ceive from his crop of timber. The consideration of a timber 

 crop brings us to the economic side of reforesting, w^hich we will 

 consider briefly in order to show by whom reforesting may be 

 done with the greatest advantage, financially. 



The cost of establishing a forest plantation ranges from $7 to 

 $10 per acre. For one plantation of 381 acres, planted in the 

 spring of 1915, the cost amounted to $6.25 per acre for the plant- 

 ing alone. To this amount must be added the cost of the trees, 

 which in this case ranged from $2 to $4: per acre. Figures now 

 available show that for average conditions of soil, climate and 

 marketing facilities, a plantation of white pine will yield from 

 5 to 6 per cent compound interest on the initial investment of $9 

 per acre, including the cost of protection and taxes for a period of 

 40 or 50 years.* 



At present there is a growing tendency toward giving land 

 containing immature stands of valuable tree species of either 

 natural or planted trees, an increased value because of the pres- 

 ence of this immature timber. The courts have rendered decis- 

 ions in cases where plantations of forest trees have been destroyed 

 by fire, requiring payment for damage sufficient to cover the cost of 

 establishing the plantation and its maintenance until the time it 

 was destroyed. Immature stands of native white pine in the 

 New England States are being purchased and held, awaiting their 

 development into merchantable timber. 



* Bulletin 13, New Series, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



